Our project is an office building with multiple stores where most occupied areas comprise open spaces. We are intended to apply composite wood products in the technical floor (floating floor) and panels as wall covering. The building is located in Europe (Portugal), where the most recognized forest management certification scheme is the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). As a general rule, LEED system defines standards and testing agency/protocol that need to be met in order to comply with a LEED credit. However, LEED also often refers that local standards or codes can be used if we can demonstrate that such standards/codes are equivalents or more stringent. The PEFC Council is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization, founded in 1999 which promotes sustainably managed forests through independent third party certification. The PEFC is a global scheme that provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management of forests. In order to verify if PEFC was equivalent or more stringent than FSC, we used the CEPI Matrix that is a comparative matrix of forest certification schemes. This matrix has been developed by the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) in 1999. CEPI is a Brussels-based non-profit organization which is composed by 18 member countries (16 European Union members plus Norway and Switzerland) and represents some 800 pulp, paper and board producing companies across Europe, representing 27% of world production. Additionally, to support our statement, we\'d like to refer to the document "A comparison of the Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification" (report prepared by Forest Industries Intelligence Limited to the Confederation of European Paper Industries, April 2006. http://www.forestrycertification.info/Documents/fscpefccomparisontext_fi... ) Therefore and based on all mentioned above, we\'d like to request permission to use PEFC certified timber products, which is equivalent to FSC, in order to comply with this LEED credit.